What Is It?

This curled-up critter is one of seven new species of limbless amphibians found recently in the soil of north­eastern India. It took re­searchers more than 1,000 hours of digging to discover all seven in 58 locations throughout the region.

This is not the first species this team has discovered. Sathyabhama Das Biju of the University of Delhi and his group have described 48 species. Biju worries, however, that many of his new species are in danger from the constant spread of development in northern India.